TownHall Menu Overhaul

A redesigned book-style menu that turns TownHall's ingredient philosophy into a readable, on-brand ordering experience.

Client: TownHall
Industry: Hospitality
Role: Design
Services: Print design, Menu design, Information design, Brand collateral

The problem

TownHall's menu had to do two jobs at once: sell food and sell the brand's ingredient philosophy. A standard menu would bury the message; a manifesto would bury the dishes.

Background

TownHall's menu is more than a list of dishes — it's a manifesto. The restaurant built its brand on real ingredients, transparent sourcing and a rejection of industrial-food shortcuts, so the menu had to communicate that philosophy while still making ordering easy.

The redesign needed to balance bold brand voice with scannable information: dietary callouts, build-your-own options, and a clear section structure that worked in a busy restaurant environment.

Objectives

01
Make the ingredient philosophy visible before a guest reads a single dish
02
Organize a complex menu into scannable sections with clear dietary tags
03
Produce a print piece that holds up to repeated handling in a restaurant environment

Audience: TownHall guests deciding what to order in-store.

Process

Planning, strategy, execution.

01Planning
Mapping the menu as a brand touchpoint
Planning audited the full menu — sections, dietary tags, modifiers and the brand voice — before deciding how the physical fold should carry the information.
- Listed every section, dish, modifier and dietary tag
- Defined the hierarchy: brand belief first, then sections, then dishes, then modifiers
- Set the physical format as a handled book-style menu built for restaurant use
02Strategy
Belief first, then ordering
The strategy led with TownHall's core belief on the cover, then used section structure and typographic hierarchy to make the menu scannable in a busy service environment.
- Cover carries the brand's Let Food Be Thy Medicine platform
- Inside sections organized by course: Shareables, Bone Broths + Soups, Flatbreads, Build-Your-Own
- Dietary tags kept discrete and consistent so guests can scan quickly
03Execution
A menu that sells the stance
Execution delivered a redesigned book-style menu with clear sectioning, dietary labels and a tone that matches the brand's confident position on real food.
- Book-style layout tuned for print production and repeated handling
- Typography hierarchy guides the eye from section to dish to modifier
- Brand voice applied through headline language, not decoration

Creative approach

The cover leads with the brand's core belief — Let Food Be Thy Medicine — and a direct statement of what TownHall refuses to use, so the menu starts the conversation before a guest opens it.

Inside, the layout organizes dishes into clear sections — Shareables, Bone Broths + Soups, Flatbreads, Build-Your-Own — with dietary tags set as discrete labels so guests can scan without slowing service.

Typography and spacing are tuned for the physical format: hierarchy carries the eye from section to dish to modifier, and the brand's confident tone is carried through headline language rather than decoration.

The work